“'Moves to create city hub gain momentum' Evening Post Wednesday, April 25, 2012
http://tinyurl.com/6ovjdaf

'City region bid may bring jobs and cash' Evening Post Saturday, April 28, 2012
http://tinyurl.com/7vd3m82”

“University of Wales? You clearly don't read the news much...”

“I'm confused, what is a city region?
Newport already has/is this, Swansea was a town converted to City.”

“stupid article”

“Will we have to pay a toll to get through Cardiff? It will put a whole new slant on Swansea's East-side, will it be Malpas or Pill”

“How can Port Talbot become a city region?”

“This is the plan folks, and not much of it explained by Evening Post.

As you see with the two links kindly losted in the first reply... it contains zero information about the transportation plans which is what the bulk of this thread is made up of. The University of Wales is directly mentioned on the BBC article that was actually bothered to look at the plans... just so you know PhilEvs...

City Region, is umm... I don't know siarad but Newport is not one. It is planning to become one with Swansea, together. Some sort of Europe thing for extra funding based on framework of investment to make the money back or something like that.

Not a single mention of a toll payment Gorseinon. Doesn't mean there won't be one but it wasn't even hinted at in the more reputable site where I got the better information from. We will have to wait and see but Cardiff has absolutely no involvement in this scheme anyway.

Westandon.... you keep doing your thing man. Good work.”

“The link below would have sufficed.
http://tinyurl.com/cpdpnf5”

“Philosoraptor - So you read an article, re-wrote and re-worded it, but still didn't see the error?

And I'm not really sure what the aim of you under underground link between Fabian Way and Swansea Bay is. Especially as Fabian way is in Swansea bay to begin with...

Unless of course you're considering a tunnel to Mumbles head. A great idea, and one I've proposed in the past, but not really worth the money.”

“ARGH - SCC are still dreaming about this tunnel? They've never explained why anyone would want to go the marina more than once a year. There's enough complaining about 'normal' road works, what would Swansea be like during the construction of this fantasy?
What do they call it - polishing a t***.”

“Seems like all this Swansea region plan is about is empire building, and spending (wasting) even more money in the city centre/SA1 while spending even less in the peripheral towns.
No one seems to be able to say what the benefits will be for the people of Neath, Llanelli, Port Talbot etc.”

“The underground could relate to Mumbles, not sure, perhaps if that is considered Swansea Bay then it is a possibility. If it is, and if done, it should sort of the traffic issue somewhat. Everyone complains about the road works Trunkles, just like they complained about the roads before the road works lol...

Lezz_T, port talbot is getting a new road for trade reasons. Any other information probably hasn't been released by Llanelli, Neath and Port Talbot. You could always ask them which is within your rights and let everybody know. As for the peripheral towns, there is one nearish me which seems to be getting funding. Pontardawe has had quite a large makeover.”

“Anything that excludes Carmarthenshire is good with me.”

“The Port Talbot Harbour Way project has nothing to do with Swansea or City Region Status.”

“Philosoraptor
Are you for or against or just wasting time?
http://tinyurl.com/85k97od”

“@Philosoraptor
Newport is a city region, its City status includes surrounding villages & is a relatively new, 1950s, form of CITY
Maybe Swansea, opposing the University moving to Neath Port Talbot, hopes to regain such control.
No way do I want to be ruled over by Swansea
This seems to be regional devolution.”

“Of course, if the UK left or renegotiated terms with the EU. There would be even more money available to spend on schemes like this. On the other hand, our UK taxes could be reduced and we could spend our own money, on what we as individuals wanted to spend it on.
Which sounds a better bet to me.”

“Kaiser, I am non-plussed about that plan because it won't affect Swansea.

Siarad, I think you are confusing terminologies. City Region in this instance does not relate to any area which is a city, if that is what you are trying to say? Which is why Port Talbot is part of this effort to apply for City Region with Swansea and Port Talbot. Together, all three will be a part of a Swansea Bay City Region designation.

I found this description of the idea.gov.uk website:

"City Regions go beyond local authority boundaries. They join more than one city together in terms of strategic planning - for example, on economic development, physical planning or strategic housing - and governance arrangements, such as through executive boards."

Despite this, I am still not entirely sure what the entire thing is and further reading into it suggests there is a Core City in the City Region, which I assume in this instance is Swansea. Swansea Bay appears to be name given to the proposed City Region, perhaps not meaning only the Swansea Bay area of Swansea will be affected by it. Information is rather sketchy to come by, would love to see the whole report that the BBC got their hands on to see what else is in the proposal.

Perhaps this 'article' (I think you meant 'discussion', weslangdon) is not as stupid as you thought it was. All we have is transportation plans that would result from a successful application, yet we do not know what this City Region is all about apart from a three line sentence found on idea.gov.uk.”

“Ah Philosraptor, another dreamer in cuckoo land. Swansea and the towns surrounding it don't have the population to support a city region. And that's why the electrification case was turned down. Swansea needs to stop trying to punch above its weight. We are no London, Birmingham, Cardiff or Manchester. We need to focus more on our role as a local hub for South West Wales.”

“Philosoraptor
Why do you think that sustainable development won't affect Swansea?

pyreneo04
We're not a local hub for South West Wales.
In fact, Swansea is an easy place to avoid and, due to the current road system and parking, is best avoided.”

“CITY REGION?
Yet another fine mess from Brussels/Strasbourg,a "HOLE" to pour more of my taxes down with no benefit to me and mine whatsoever.”

“City Region status is a great idea. As one of the poorest parts of the EU we need all the help we can get.”

“Swansea Bay City region could include swansea, neath port talbot and carmarthenshire.

It's a good idea to get everyone working togeather to compete against other areas”

“Swansea Bay City region could include swansea, neath port talbot and carmarthenshire.

It's a good idea to get everyone working togeather to compete against other areas”

“There are also plans for a Cardiff City region which will have 1.3m people and far better transport links.
So Swansea will still be in the same boat investment wise as now.”

“pyreneo04

I think that is what this plan might be for, so you say to stop dreaming about this plan, and instead dream about the same plan but one which you get to come up with first?!

That is a "not my idea, don't like it" sort of attitude. An attitude most rational people rightful spit on.”

“The region should probably cover the entire M4 corridor from Newport to Swansea. A rail link to Heathrow should also be included”

“This is about swansea trying to compete with cardiff, good for surounding area's don't make me laugh whenever have swansea done anything for anybody, No the surrounding area's will get nothing ( Neath has never had nothing from these schemes thanks to our career seeking national and local politicians) the sooner we get out of europe and scrap the assemble the sooner normality will return”

“toughsmiler, the fact you think we should leave Europe shows you are not well versed in reality. Every person who knows what they are talking about knows the UK would suffer massively if it left the EU, there is too much anti-EU talk in some quarters of the media because they know it sells but unfortunately for those who are gullible to believe such right wing publications, they are then repeating such views with little knowledge of how the EU actually works.

Anyway, you shouldn't expect Neath to become a "Swansea" out of this City Region, Swansea is commercial hub of the region and that is going to stay, Neath would be an industrial hub with services and Neath has never been part of a scheme like so please don't pretend that there has been a precedent.”

“Philosopraptor I can see that by reading your reply that you are a very gullible person, Let me enlighten you with facts not fiction, firstly we buy more from the eu than they buy from the uk, secondly the uk is the eu biggest market, thirdly it is costing the uk £53million pounds a day or £19.2 billion a year just to be in the eu,we receive back through rebate and from farming subsidies and regional developments £8.4 billion leaving us out of pocket to the tune of £11.1 billion pounds what could we do with that. I could go on But could you tell me where are the benefits.”

“toughsmiler 6 Aug 2012 at 6:14pm
This is a discussion piece about the possibility of forming a City Region so, if you want to write about EU membership I suggest that you create an item using the 'Start a discussion' block.
By following my advice, people will be able to gauge the validity of your case for leaving the EU.
Please quote the sources of any data that you produce because failure to do so will lead most to think that you made them up or got them from a crank site like UKIP.”